This invention relates to communications that occur between a master controller and its respective zone controllers within an HVAC communication network. In particular, this invention relates to the manner in which a master controller conveys a network identification of itself to its respective zone controllers within an HVAC communication network that may include a number of different master controllers and respective zone controllers.
Commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 670,197 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,572 entitled "HVAC Communication Network" filed in the name of Stephen M. Maciulewicz on even date herewith sets forth a particular communication scheme between a master controller and its respective zone controllers. The scheme is premised on each zone controller having stored network address of its respective master controller. Each zone controller can identify whether a message from a particular device on the network is in fact a message from its respective master controller by checking whether a field of information in the message from a master controller contains the stored network address of its respective master controller. This communication scheme works well when there are no changes to be made in the stored network addresses of the master controllers in their respective zone controllers. There are, however, instances where the network address of one or more zone controllers might change when devices are, for instance, added to the communication network requiring possible reconfiguration of the network. In such cases all zone controllers associated with such master controllers will need to have their stored master controller network addresses changed.